Brian Palmer here. Last time I was with you, I talked about the importance of making sure your industry speakers know why they were invited, what you want them to do, what you want them to talk about and how you want their session to go.

Today I want to recommend that you provide your industry speakers with an opportunity to improve their presentation—some sort of a coach or an online tool. Skillshare has all sorts of public speaking classes that people can take. Make sure that people are going to be up to the task.

Industry speakers are often things that nobody else can give your attendees. So it’s wise to put some time and effort into telling them what you want them to do, but also give them some educational opportunities to make sure that they deliver a high quality product at your event.

Brian Palmer here. We get to see a great many speaker evaluations and commonly, people say things on there like, “I had never heard of this speaker before, but boy, was she good! That was the highlight of the conference.”

We’ve often suggested that people, when they’ve never heard of the speaker, are delighted when that speaker does a particularly good job. We think it’s wise to hire really good speakers who might not be well known. They tend to cost a great deal less and create a particularly happy audience.

Satisfaction is somewhat a function of expectations, and when expectations aren’t particularly high, audiences find themselves particularly satisfied. I heard about this study that was done: “On the road to happiness, a pleasant surprise beats a sure thing.” That was the Washington Post article about the study which essentially said that audiences are particularly delighted when they get an unexpected surprise. I’ve got a link to the article below. You might want to read it and make sure that when you hire no-name speakers, they’re really good and you will particularly delight your group.

MPI’s Magazine, The Meeting Professional, recently featured an article written by Brian Palmer, CMM, President of National Speakers Bureau.

In this piece, he puts forth the notion that a process to prepare speakers should be in place for everyone who is to present, even those who might be appearing as a favor or in support of their own cause. It remains your event, and the odds of their talk achieving your objectives go up when your management is consistent.

Today’s topic is lighting. We actually do a good bit of our listening with our eyes. We take meaning from a person’s expression and the way they’re using their hands. If you can’t see their face and if you can’t almost read their lips, it’s harder to get some of the subtle meanings. So, it’s important to have the space where your speaker is appearing be well lit so audiences can see them well.

I think that’s one of the things that drove the advent of image magnification – so that a speaker’s face was a lot bigger, and they could see the speaker. And when he or she might wink at an audience or make a subtle move, the speaker can be seen better – a lot better – on your screen.

Contract riders have a lot more to do than with blue M&M’s. It’s usually a list of things that need to be in place that help the performer do his very best.

I think it’s a very good idea to have your own rider of sorts. You might not want to call it that, but I think it’s wise to have a list of things you want speakers to do and things you want to happen at your event – things based on history that will help the session go well, things like a speaker not talking about their books too much in their presentation or arriving at a certain time in the day. You can learn every time you book a speaker, refine that list, and implement it every time you book somebody new to increase the likelihood that your objectives are met.

Last time I talked about the importance of a good introduction. Here’s a trick that Alan Parisse taught me many years ago about helping people do a good job with their introductions.

People usually get a piece of paper and read the words, and they’re in paragraph forms. It’s a little difficult at times, if somebody wants to look around and make eye contact with the audience, to then look back down and find out exactly where they were.

Alan’s idea was to make each sentence its own paragraph. It allows the person to read, look up, and find his or her place much more readily, and it’s something that, I think, will make the job easier and provide your speakers with a better start to their presentation.

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